Sins of the Fathers

Among
the many sad notes that have been played in regard to the Catholic Church's sexual
abuse scandal, here's one that points to the depth of the church's disgrace:
Various media outlets reported that, "prompted by the scandal," dioceses across
the country announced the firing of dozens of priests.

Why did it take a "scandal"
elsewhere to prompt these actions? What's the message here? Church officials knew
these priests engaged in sexual abuse, yet they didn't act until forced to by the
scandalor, more accurately, by the massive publicity around abuse cases in Boston
and elsewhere.

Bad as the individual cases
are, and as seriously damaged as are many of the individual victims, the far greater sin
rests on the actions of the institutional church. As they used to say in the Nixon era, it's
not just the crime, it's the cover-up. In this case, the Catholic Church's
cover-up had horrendous consequences: Priests often were transferred to situations where
they continued to be in contact with childrenand, often, continued to engage in
their criminal and destructive behavior.

Church leadersincluding,
admittedly, Cardinal Law of Bostonwere fully aware of the crimes committed under
their watch, and were consciously engaged in shuffling the abusers from parish to parish.
In any jurisdiction in the country, aiding and abetting a felony is a crime, subject to
prosecution, trial, and imprisonment. In these cases, you could probably throw in
harboring felons and obstruction of justice as well.

What would happen to the
principal of an elementary school who similarly covered-up sexual abuse by a teacher and
moved the perpetrator from classroom to classroom? Or a corporate CEO with that kind of
after-the-fact abetting of criminal behavior? It's safe to assume that people would
not merely call for resignation, but criminal prosecution.

Can good come out of such
evil? Much of the damage done, to individuals and to the church's reputation, will be
slow in healing. The great majority of priests and bishopstotally innocent of any
such wrongdoinghave been tainted by the actions of a few. But the revelation of this
years-long scandal has already transformed how the church deals with these issues, and
perhaps will even help sound the death knell for the all-male, celibate priesthood. Would
allowing married priests or ordaining women suddenly eliminate the problem? Of course not.
But those changes will open the door to even deeper reforms.

In the meantime, the church
has a lot of repenting to do. Because, unfortunately, it's not only the Catholic
Church that has been besmirched by these sins, but the witness of the gospel itself. And
that's the gravest sin of all.

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